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Advanced Estate PlanningSouth FL Estate Planning Attorneys

Affluent families generally require more sophisticated estate planning strategies. As experienced South FL estate planning attorneys, we have helped numerous high net worth individuals and families reduce federal estate taxes, gift taxes, generation skipping transfer taxes and more. The advance estate planning services we can put to work on your behalf include all of the following, depending on your unique situation and goals.

Family Limited Partnerships
A properly designed and funded Family Limited Partnership (FLP) benefits family members by protecting assets and reducing estate and gift taxes, while allowing you to maintain control of the assets in the FLP. It lets you make gifts of limited partnership interests to your children or other beneficiaries, and accomplish several estate planning goals, including:

Reducing the taxes your heirs would have to pay when you pass away, since the value of each limited partnership interest you give away decreases the value of your taxable estate. Gifts are made using the annual gift tax exclusion, meaning you do not have to pay gift tax on the transfer

A minority discount can be applied to reduce the value of the limited partnership interests that you give away. That’s because limited partners cannot control the day-to-day operation of the partnership. And, a discount can be applied based on the lack of marketability of the limited partnership interest. The result? You can transfer more wealth to beneficiaries while maintaining your control over FLP assets

Protecting assets from creditors due to the fact that general partners in the FLP are not required to distribute partnership assets

Qualified Personal Residence Trusts
A Qualified Personal Residence Trust (QPRT) lets you give away your home (or a vacation home) at a significant discount, freeze its value for estate tax purposes, and at the same time continue to reside in the property. How? You transfer the title to the QPRT and reserve the right to live in the home for a specific amount of time. If you live in the house for the period of time specified in the QPRT, it passes to your children or other beneficiaries without incurring additional estate or gift taxes. (Appreciation of the house’s value is protected as well.) Afterwards, you can still live in the house but are required to pay rent to your family or the designated beneficiary to avoid the residence being included in your estate.

Conversely, should you pass away before the number of years allotted for living in the home by the QPRT, the full value of the home will be included in your estate for tax purposes, but you likely will not suffer financially when compared to what might have happened if you had not used a QPRT.

In addition, the QPRT provides asset protection against creditors because, technically, you do not own the property once it has been transferred to the QPRT.

Irrevocable Life Insurance Trusts
A properly drafted and administered Irrevocable Life Insurance Trust (ILIT) keeps the proceeds in you life insurance policy outside of your estate, thereby preventing them from being counted as part of your estate and avoiding the prospect of losing half the policy’s value to estate taxes. The proceeds from the insurance policy instead become a source of liquidity that can be used to pay debts, estate taxes and other expenses, as well as being a source of income to loved ones.

An ILIT can be designed to accomplish a number of goals, such as providing income to a surviving spouse with the remainder going to children from a previous marriage, or having the assets distributed to beneficiaries over time if they are financially irresponsible.